Let's Discuss Free Trials...
 

With fewer sponsors offering free trial options, what do you think is the future of free trials?
Do you think they’ll go away or start making a comeback?
For affiliates, is the free trial option still a very lucrative sell, or do you push different options more, and if so, which ones do the best for you?

Please share.

There are very few that can even process free trials, let alone make them work after paying $20-30 per sign up to the webmaster.

Most went to $1 trials because (I assume) it's easier to prove the auth for the recurring transaction if there's an original charge on the CC.

I like both & my surfers seem to like them as well, so if the program/site is good enough to make their money back after the PPS costs, then everyone is happy :)

I've never intentionally pushed trials, yet I've had trial sales - go figure. The few trial sales I've had weren't big bucks PPS and failed to convert to full memberships, so they haven't been a lucky proposition for me. In fact, I just discovered a trial sale (with $0 earnings |thumb) a few days ago due to me using the wrong link code somewhere. (Maybe if I didn't have to click, choose option, click again, choose option, click again and so on, I would have used the correct link.)

GG's trial stats and my multiple in-depth scans of the LOR makes me think that trials must work very well for him, but I'm fucked in so many ways...so many, many ways...

Link Lists market free or $1 trials in a different way than free sites & galleries, but I can't see how it'd hurt to throw in your marketing text that the site offers a free or $1 trial so that you can get a couple extra clicks & hopefully a signup or 2 :)

I don't use a lot of sponsors with trials, but the ones I have are revshare and for me they just don't convert past the trial period.

|pokefun| You know how long it's going to take me to hit a $50 minimum with $1.60 per sale.

I honestly can't think of any program that offers free or $1 trials that does not PPS, so the revshare angle on this subject might be moot.

SammySmack:
That was where I got my previously mentioned $0 trial sign-up.

You're right, I was referring to ($4.97 for a 3 Day Trial) and similiar revshare tours.

Yep, very similar results here.

It's either full ticket revshare or PPS for me |thumb

To answer the original question...I used to do quite well with the free signup proggies. The few old links I still have up to them, haven't done anything in months sales wise.

Yeah - as soon as I heard they did that, I switched back to the revshare signups. IMHO, that's just stupid (at least pay out a buck or 2 like the few other programs that have this sort of "Pay Per Sign Up" option do)

nice info guys, thanks!
Seems to be the opinion here that free trials are on their way out then??

I think that they've been on their way out due to CC fraud problems - but I still use them any chance I get :)

They've finally set up a NO-Trials PPS option, but it's not available in your option list unless you request that it be added.

i think free trials are garbage... with quality content, good surfers that will rebill aren't discouraged from a buy due to having to spend a few dollars on something they actually want

i think this is the truth. I'm anti one trials too. I'll push dollar trials with a PPS, but rebill... most the time those people that do a dollar trial i find are there for the one dollar trial and then out.

Maybe I am just paranoid, but seems to me using free or 1$ trials that pay per sign up are just asking to get fucked. I know almost for a fact that a couple of my 1$ trial pps sponsors have been shaving the holy hell out of me. I see the exact same shit every single month, first pay period 1:300-500 and the second pay period of the month 1:3k or worse, this trend has gone on and on every single month I have used this one sponsor in particular. I have almost always used pps exclusively but I am thinking I am gonna be moving towards revshare. The few occaisons I have used revshare I get double or even triple the amount of sign ups I have ever gotten with a pps program, but my greedy ass thinks geez I could be making much more money so much quicker with PPS only to get my balls shaven off. Guess now I am seeing the good side of revshare now while all my PPS sponsors are shaving the fuck out of me I am still seeing some nice rebills.

Sorry to get off topic here, but I am very wary now of those free or 1$ trial sponsors that pay 25-35$ for free or 1$ trials.

I was doing pretty well for a long time with a sponsor that has free trials on a pps program. Especially in a particular niche I do well with. I have noticed they slowed in the past few months but the thing is I tried to never market it as a free trial in my sales text in effect filtering those looking for the freebie. They have thier place and ways to use them like any other program offering which is the thing to understand. But the problem of them not recurring for the sponsors paying pps is definitely another issue to be reckoned with.

Greenie, the reason why they went to $1 trials is purely for "transaction" numbers. The way visa chargeback rules work is you are allowed say .07% of transactions to charge back before you are in trouble. Free trials do not count as a transaction, and the minimum they can charge is $1 so they went to $1 trials to help with their chargeback ratios.

There are several sponsors who are coming out with free trials again, so if that is your market, you will have more options available to you shortly

I use them as a last resort.